Rating: 
Summary: Not perfect, but decent
Review: You may look at the title and think, "Oh, my God. ANOTHER self-esteem book. When will the madness end?" This book was first published in the late `80s and was primarily based off a hit back from that time, "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy," by David Burns. Burns, along with Aaron Beck, was one of the first proponents of CBT (Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy), the theory that negative thoughts and self-defeating habits can affect mood. Anyway, "Feeling Good" is an excellent book to help alleviate depression, but the problem with it is that it's just too long, too extensive, and too demanding of the reader in the amount of writing exercises it requires. "Feeling Good" can be useful, but it requires a lot of work. In addition, the information on medications is woefully out of date. In "Self-Esteem," McKay and Fanning take many of the same ideas and condense them, making them easier to understand. McKay and Fanning also simplify the exercises so that they make more sense and are easier to do. The ideas and exercises can take a while to sink in before they can become helpful. There is no quick fix to depression or anxiety. As one of the first popular books in the field of CBT, "Self-Esteem" has held up pretty well over the years. The whole self-esteem movement may be a recent trend, but some of the movement's ideas have some truth to them. Is this a perfect book? No. As others have complained, it is repetitive. Still, the ideas in it have helped me and others, and I think they can still be helpful to someone looking for useful self-help books today.
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